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Jan (Barad_the_dwarf)

At GenCon last month, Star Wars Destiny was obviously one of the big new hot games. There was always a line for a demo, mostly because FFG was handing out exclusive alt-art promo cards for Rey and Kylo Ren. I sat through a number of demos (you had to, to get both promos) and noticed by the second game that each person teaching was doing it a bit differently. I've demoed games at GenCon in the past, so I know that it's easy to forget a rule or two. But as I noticed the many different rules there were being taught wrong, I thought it would be fun to collect them all here for posterity and to maybe help people who were taught the rules wrong (if it happened to me, it probably happened to others). I'm basing the "right" rules on what was in the printed rule sheets that have since been published.

You don't roll for initiative at the start of every round (only at the start of the game. After that, the first player each round is based on who claimed the battlefield in the previous round).

Whoever loses initiative get two shields (not none, as I was initially taught).

You actually get two free resources a turn. In my first demo game, when we didn't get any, I thought the expensive cards (3 or 4 resources) were pretty much impossible to use.

You can't activate all of a character's dice in one action. Only all the dice of one type. So, you can't get a resource from one die and spend it on another die in the same action.

When you spot a card, it has to be one of yours, not anywhere on the table.

At GenCon last month, Star Wars Destiny was obviously one of the big new hot games. There was always a line for a demo, mostly because FFG was handing out exclusive alt-art promo cards for Rey and Kylo Ren. I sat through a number of demos (you had to, to get both promos) and noticed by the second game that each person teaching was doing it a bit differently. I've demoed games at GenCon in the past, so I know that it's easy to forget a rule or two. But as I noticed the many different rules there were being taught wrong, I thought it would be fun to collect them all here for posterity and to maybe help people who were taught the rules wrong (if it happened to me, it probably happened to others). I'm basing the "right" rules on what was in the printed rule sheets that have since been published.

You don't roll for initiative at the start of every round (only at the start of the game. After that, the first player each round is based on who claimed the battlefield in the previous round).

Whoever loses initiative get two shields (not none, as I was initially taught).

You actually get two free resources a turn. In my first demo game, when we didn't get any, I thought the expensive cards (3 or 4 resources) were pretty much impossible to use.

You can't activate all of a character's dice in one action. Only all the dice of one type. So, you can't get a resource from one die and spend it on another die in the same action.

When you spot a card, it has to be one of yours, not anywhere on the table.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for the summary.

I attended Gencon several years ago, and the training quality of the demo staff for several major companies was less than adequate.One would think, with the tens of thousands it costs Wizards of the Coast or FFG to go to gencon and push new systems, preparing their staff with rules and demo approach would be their utmost priority.

The exception to this experience from the videos I viewed was the team member for the FFG RuneWars Miniatures Game demo. He knew the rules really well.

Regardless, water under the bridge. These clarifications helped me a lot. Thank you.

So, on Day 1 they were only letting people play about 2 or 3 turns before kicking you out and letting new people try it. Day 2 though, some of the demo tables were letting people play a full game out. While waiting to get in on one of the tables, the demo leader was letting them have unlimited shields. So the game took fooorrrreeeeevvver to finish since Kylo Ren ended up with a stack of 10+ shields. It's definitely max 3 shields.

Other mistakes weren't as bad; 1 demo guy thought once someone claimed the battlefield it just stayed with that person for the full game.

And I witnessed (and then saw it happen again in the Team Covenant video) a demo guy not understand why the F-11D Stormtrooper Rifle was in the Light Side deck (Finn), and remove it once the Light Side player drew it and asked about it.

In the team covenant video, the demo guy repeatedly says that damage dealt through an action or ability (like Kylo Ren's one) bypasses the shields.Based on how the rules are phrased, that doesn't look like the case to me. My feeling is that only damage defined as "unblockable", like the Lightsaber special ability, bypasses the shields.What do you think?

Btw, I also don't like how the rules state that you "redraw until you have 5 cards in hand" at the end of the upkeep phase, and a few paragraphs later they tell you that you lose if you have no card in your hand and deck after the upkeep phase.Probably just nitpicking, but I think it would have been clearer if they said something like "redraw until you have 5 cards in hand if able", provided that that was the intention.

In the team covenant video, the demo guy repeatedly says that damage dealt through an action or ability (like Kylo Ren's one) bypasses the shields.Based on how the rules are phrased, that doesn't look like the case to me. My feeling is that only damage defined as "unblockable", like the Lightsaber special ability, bypasses the shields.What do you think?

You are correct. Only damaged defined as unblockable damage bypasses shields. I misspoke during the demo. It was my first demo of the convention after only a handful of games myself. I apologize for the error.